It is distinguished from all other ingredients chiefly by its bitter taste. In some plants it is found in great abundance, in some others, not at all, or only in certain stages of their growth. It maintains some relation to the amount of nutriment. Those plants which have little nutritious matter have much of the bitter principle, and grain has most before it is ripe.

"It seems to be as essential to herbivorous, as salt is to carnivorous animals. It acts as a natural stimulant. Several experiments have proved that it passes through the stomach and bowels without suffering any diminution in quantity, or any change in composition. No cattle will thrive upon food which does not contain a portion of this bitter principle. The researches of the late Mr. Sinclair, gardener to the Duke of Bedford, fully established this fact. As recorded in the Hor-tus Gramineus Woburnensis, they show that, when sheep are fed exclusively upon yellow turnips, which contain almost no bitter matter, they instinctively seek and devour any provender which does. If unable to find it, they sicken and die."

[A Table of the Comparative Value of different Kinds of Fodder for Cattle has been published by M Antoino, in France, and is the result of experiments made by the principal agriculturists on the continent, Thaer, Gemer-hausen, Petro, Rieder, Weber, Krantz, Andre, Block, De Dombasle, Boussingault, Meyer, Plotow, Pohl, Smee, Crud, Schwertz, Pabst. It is unnecessary to give the figures which each of these experimentalists have set down, but the mean of their experiments being taken, there is more chance of the result being near the truth. Allowance must be made for the different qualities of the same food on different soils and different seasons. In very dry summers the same weight of any green food will be much more nourishing than in a dripping season. So likewise any fodder raised on a rich dry soil will be more nourishing than on a poor wet one. The standard of comparison is the best upland meadow-hay, cut as the flower expands, and properly made and stacked, without much heating; in short, hay of the best quality.

With respect to hay, such is the difference in value, that if 100 lbs. of the best is used, it will require 120 lbs. of a second quality to keep the same stock as well, 140 lbs. of the third, and so on, till very coarse and hard hay, not well made, will only be of half the value, and not so fit for cows or store cattle, even when given in double the quantity. While good hay alone will fatten cattle, inferior hay will not do so with out other food.

Lattermath hay is good for cows, not for horses. The second cut is generally considered as inferior in nourishment to the first. New hay is not wholesome. At Paris, when a load of 1,000 kilos is bargained for, the seller must deliver - if between haymaking and October 1, 1,300 kilos - from October 1 to April 1, 1,100 kilos - and after April, only 1,000. This is fair, and allows for loss of weight in drying. In London a load of new hay is 20 cwt., of old hay, only 18 cwt.

The dried halm of the trifolium incarnatum, after the seed is ripe, is little better than straw. Clover, lucerne, and saintfoin, are generally supposed to lose three fourths of their weight in drying; but in general they lose more, especially in moist climates, where the sap is more diluted. When touched by the frost, they become very un-wholesome, and should never be given to cattle except quite dry.

Straw is, on the whole, but poor food, and unless cattle have something better with it, they will not keep in any condition; when given with turnips or other roots, straw corrects their watery nature, and is very useful; cut into chaff it is very good for sheep when fed on turnips and oil-cake, and when newly thrashed is as good nearly as hay. By a judicious mixture of different kinds of food, a more economical mode of feeding may be substituted for a more expensive one, and the same result obtained. The value of straw depends much on the soil; a very clean crop will not give so nourishing straw as one containing many succulent weeds Peas and vetch halm are superior to straw, especially when cut into chaff; it is by some thought equal to hay. The same may be said of bean halm not left too long in the field, and cut before it is completely dry. Buckwheat halm is of little value : it is thought unwholesome if given to sheep.

16 lbs. of raw, or 14 lbs. of boiled potatoes will allow a diminution of 8 lbs of hay.

Turnips will feed store pigs, but they will not fatten on them. Carrots and parsnips are excellent for horses, and, when boiled, will fatten hogs. Ruta-baga is liked by horses : it makes their coats fine, but must not be given in too great quantity, or it will gripe them.